BBC Mistakes ‘Halo’s’ UNSC for the United Nations, Apologizes

The crisis in Syria is no joke. For over a year, protesters have been demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad – whose Ba’ath Party has been in power for nearly five decades – and their relentless attempts to overthrow the government have been met with stiff resistance from Assad’s Syrian Army. Accounts of atrocities abound – including civilian executions, kidnapping, and torture – as the United Nations reports that the fighting has claimed at least 13,000 lives on both sides, half of which are civilians.

Having said that, then, you’d think the folks in BBC News’ graphics department would take utmost care in presenting the coverage, especially those who are in charge of the massive visual board adorning the background of their set.

It wasn’t the case last week when – in reporting on the UN’s response to the conflict – the logo of the Halouniverse’s fictional United Nations Space Command appeared directly behind anchor Sophie Raworth. To make things worse, the camera slowly begins zooming inward, accentuating the logo’s visual weight and centering it on the screen. Watching the newscast on mute or with a hearing impairment, one might be lead into thinking that Master Chief was being deployed to settle the conflict once and for all (which we have no doubt he would).

Left: The real United Nations logo

The video has been on YouTube since May 24th, but it garnered plenty of attention after it was spotted this week by Eurogamer. Subsequently, the Beeb has now issued an apology to the website, asking for forgiveness:

“BBC News makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all images broadcast, however very occasionally mistakes do happen. Unfortunately an incorrect logo was used during a segment on last week’s News at One bulletin and we apologise to viewers for the mistake.

“The image was not broadcast in our later bulletins.”

No explanation was given for how the gaffe was committed, but it’s not too hard to figure out. A Google image search for “United Nations Security Council logo” (before the video went viral, that is) would have brought up the authentic seal of the multinational organization. Taking the short route and typing “UNSC logo,” however? Well, that’s when the magnificent Halo lore begins to cloud things a bit.